News

Goldberg's residency case heads to N.C. Board of Elections

Jerry Goldberg will have to wait until Monday to know whether he is considered a legitimate candidate for Raleigh City Council. Goldberg is running for the District D seat against incumbent Thomas Crowder and Ted Van Dyk.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Michael Morgan rejected Goldberg's request for a temporary injunction against the Wake Board of Elections' recent ruling that Goldberg did not meet the residency requirements to run in D. Goldberg's attorney, Jerry Meek, told the Indy that the judge reasoned that there was no "immediate or irreparable harm" in waiting for the N.C. Board of Elections to consider Goldberg's case on Monday. "The judge was clear he was not ruling on the merits of the case," Meek said.

Goldberg is charging that the residency requirements for nonpartisan, municipal races is unconstitutional. Candidates must live at the address they list on the day they file for office; in congressional races, for example, candidates only have to declare that they will move into the district where they are running.

According to the Elections Board, when Goldberg filed, he listed his address as a home in District D on Avent Ferry Road, one of many properties Goldberg, a city inspector, owns. However, the official Election Board document shows Goldberg as living at 8901 O’Neal Road, which does not lie in any council district, according to Wake County maps.

Goldberg told the Indy that he lived on Avent Ferry when he filed but since moved to 1114 Kent Road, also in D. Goldberg said his wife lives on O'Neal Road and plans to move in with him when fixes up the Kent Road home.